This invention relates to an apparatus and a process for making an elastic composite sheet.
Japanese Patent Application Disclosure No. 1998-245757 describes a process for making a sheet-like elastic composite comprising the steps of feeding a thermoplastic inelastic sheet into a nip between a heat-embossing roll formed on its peripheral surface with stripe-like ridges and grooves and a roll formed on its peripheral surface with the similar ridges and grooves adapted to be engaged with those of the heat-embossing roll to form the inelastic sheet with the corresponding ridges and grooves, and feeding a elastic sheet together with the inelastic sheet formed with the ridges and grooves into a nip between the embossing roll and a flat roll to heat-seal the inelastic sheet only along the ridges formed thereon with the elastic sheet.
The process described in the Japanese Patent Application Disclosure No. 1998-245757 requires two separate the steps, i.e., the step of forming the inelastic sheet with the ridges and grooves and the step of heat-seal the inelastic sheet with the elastic sheet. On the step of forming the inelastic sheet with the ridges and grooves, heat transfer inevitably occurs from the embossing roll and the roll having the ridges and the grooves adapted to be engaged with those of the embossing roll to substantially the whole surface of the inelastic sheet. Such heat transfer hardens the inelastic sheet and thereby deteriorates a touch expected for this inelastic sheet.